In early spring, South Oak Cliff football coaches convinced some of the school's top athletes in other sports to play football. But those coaches didn't try to talk basketball player Mekhi Roberson into coming out for football.

"Because nobody knew anything about him being into football at all," SOC coach Jason Todd said.

Well, Roberson was into football. It's just that his mom wasn't, and she wouldn't let him play because she worried he could get injured.

"I just kept asking her," Roberson said, "and she said because I was becoming a senior, it was my decision."

Louis DeLuca/Staff Photographer

South Oak Cliff High School defensive back Mekhi Roberson is pictured at practice at the high school in Dallas on Wednesday, October 18, 2017. (Louis DeLuca/The Dallas Morning News)

The decision was easy for Roberson, who had played football up until high school, and so was the return to the field. After three full years away from football, Roberson jumped back into the sport and became a starter for one of the area's top teams.

Roberson, a 6-0, 185-pound defensive back and linebacker, has made 48 tackles and broken up six passes for South Oak Cliff (5-2, 3-0 in District 11-5A). He has also forced three fumbles for the Golden Bears, who are No. 11 in the 5A area rankings.

Roberson has played so well that colleges, just now getting to see what the basketball guard can do as a football defender, are recruiting him.

"I think he's definitely a Division I football player," Todd said.

It's rare for a player to have so much success after so much time away from the sport, but several Dallas-area players who hadn't played high school football before this season are making significant contributions to their teams.

Haltom cornerback Augie Sherman is one of them. The junior has played in every game and has even been a starter for the Buffalos (4-3, 2-1 in 3-6A entering Thursday night's game).

At Arlington Martin, Emmanuel Sadala decided to attend the Warriors' conditioning camp during the summer. The 6-0, 269-pound senior, a basketball player for Martin, decided to join the football team and has improved rapidly as a defensive lineman. He now plays about 30 snaps per game for Martin (5-1, 2-1 in 4-6A), and coach Bob Wager said college recruiters are asking about him.

Sadala's story is not unlike that of Sila (pronounced See-lah) Carmichael at Grand Prairie. Carmichael (6-0, 225) returned to football last season as a junior and is now a starting offensive lineman, backup defensive end and special teams player for the Gophers (2-4, 1-2 in 7-6A).

And then there is Mesquite outside linebacker Chris Williams, who hadn't played football since seventh grade. In August, he told the Mesquite coaches that he wanted to play football again, and because the 6-0, 165-pound senior is so athletic, the Skeeters coaches figured Williams could at least make an impact on special teams.

Well, Williams does make an impact on special teams, where he often makes big hits that jump off game film. But Williams is also a starting outside linebacker for Mesquite (1-5, 0-3 in 11-6A), which is rebuilding under new coach Jeff Fleener.

Fleener said Williams' time away from football showed early in his return, when he always went 100 miles per hour, but often not in the right direction. Midway through the season, Williams is going the right direction most of the time, still always at top speed, and has made 39 tackles.

Like with Roberson, college recruiters seeing Williams' film for the first time are showing interest.

"If one of those schools could get him and redshirt him for a year, they're going to find a guy whose ceiling is extremely high," Fleener said. "We mess with him all the time and say, 'If you had played football the last four years, you could've had anybody you wanted coming down here to look at you."